French Spirits

<p>When Jeffrey Greene a prize-winning American poet and Mary a molecular biologist and his wife-to-be discover a moss-covered stone presbytery in a lovely village in the Puisaye region of Burgundy they know they have to live there. In lush lyrical prose Greene recalls their experiences turning the 300-year-old stone building -- a château in miniature that the locals believe houses numerous spirits-into a habitable refuge. He brings to life their adventures in finding wonderful bargains with which to furnish their new space including a firm mattress and some rather suspicious antiques bought from the back of a van.</p><p>Greene offers the unexpected joys and surprises of village life from celebrating his and Mary's simple backyard wedding to toiling in a verdant garden. He shares the experience of surviving his mother's decision to move in and humorously introduces the locals -- both human and nonhuman -- who define his and Mary's new world.</p><p>Woven throughout this luscious tale are the pleasures of rural France: wondrous food and wine long-held rituals and feasts dark superstitions and deeply rooted history.</p>